Duke's done, oh dear

His beloved Duke Blue Devils got bumped out of the NCAA tourney in the first round last night, but Duke alum and super fan Rick Wagoner, chairman of GM, didn't take the day off to mourn.

Sources say he was at his desk on time and there was no need to lock the windows in his Ren Cen office or remove sharp objects.

It seems Wagoner didn't expect a championship from the team, which hasn't bowed out of the Big Dance this early since 1996. A last-second jumper by underdog Virginia Commonwealth dispatched the No. 6 seed Thursday.

Is there a DOC in the house? Monday 3/5/2007 5:13 PM CST

Gonna have to dig a little deeper into pocket or purse if the Illinois General Assembly approves legislation calling for car dealers to get paid more for the paperwork it takes to process car sales.

The so-called documentary, or DOC, fee could rise to $150 if legislation introduced in the Illinois House last month becomes law. With the dealers' powerful lobby, that's likely.

In 1992 then Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan approved a $40 DOC fee dealers could charge to cover paperwork, plus an annual cost of living escalator. That was to prevent the unscrupulous from tacking on up to $400 in unexplained fees--for things such as prepping your trade-in for sale. With COLA the fee now is $58.48.

Legislation introduced by Rep. Daniel Burke (D-Chicago) would boost the fee to $150 and keep the escalator.

Even at $58, the DOC fee isn't mandated, the amount isas long as everyone pays the same, says Jerry Cizek, president of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, which represents more than 500 Chicagoland dealers. It spearheaded the original DOC as well as this change.

"The amount of paperwork and people needed to process it have increased. The cost has quadrupled since 1992, but the fee hasn't kept up," said Bob Loquercio, chairman of the CATA and an Elgin Toyota, Scion, Hyundai dealer. He is mum, however, on the actual cost.

Some of the added paperwork is the result of 9/11, according to Cizek. For one thing, dealers have to make sure they aren't selling to terroristsby scrolling through an alphabetized list of prohibited buyers on the computer.

Of course, another reason Illinois dealers want a higher DOC fee is dealers in at least 30 states charge $400 to $900.

And that makes you wonder how long Illinois dealers will be satisfied with $150.

That leaves four private equity firms, Apollo Management LP, the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and Cerberus Capital Management LP, exploring a purchase, along with General Motors, the cream that has risen to the top of the rumor mill.

Not that excess production capacity, excess unionized labor, huge pension and health care legacy costs and a dealer body that is on a reducing program aren't enticing.

But before you get too excited about who is going to buy Chrysler, remember that last year the speculation was that General Motors and Ford were going bankrupt, if not being bought by Renault/Nissan.

Didn't happen.

As for GM, after reducing the number of plants and the size of its work force, why would it want the speculation that it wants to take on Chrysler? To guarantee it stays bigger than Toyota. Isn't that why it bought a stake in Fiat, at a cost of $4 billion, and is in the midst of a recovery program now?

For shame: People spent a lot of time and money to visit the Chicago Auto Show on its final day only to find the popular Chevy Camaro concept convertible had been shipped to California for an Academy Award fashion show.

GM says sorry. Those who came to the show just to see Camaro are saying things a little stronger.

Waiting room: You still have a lengthy wait for a Pontiac Solstice roadster if you want the version with its 2-liter, 260-h.p., turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. Order to delivery of at least two months, Pontiac says.

And the winner is : Ford takes the prize, not for selling products, but for placing its products in movies. For the second year in a row Ford won the Brandcameo product placement award from Brandchannel, an online magazine dedicated to counting how many times product placement tops plot in movies. Ford products appeared in 40 percent of all No. 1 movies in 2006, which, of course, is 40 percent more movies than Paris Hilton appeared in.

Five Hundred countdown: Ford says it's taking no chances that its dealers lots will be filled with unsold 2007 Five Hundred sedans when it brings it out the as Taurus this summer. While it said it would offer incentives to ensure there's no inventory buildup, it says it will use another tactic, production downtime, to keep from creating stockpiles.

So, while a $2,000 cash incentive of 1.9 percent 60 month discount financing is being offered on the Ford Five Hundred as well as Mercury Montego sedan and Ford Freestyle crossover now, Ford says its Torrence Avenue assembly plant in Chicago will have several weeks of downtime between now and May, when the production switch is made. How many weeks? Ford won't say.

Challenger muscles in Wednesday 2/14/2007 2:19 PM CST

Chrysler Group confirms it will unveil the production version of the at the Chicago Auto Show next February before putting the car on sale in the spring of 2008. Challenger will join the Charger sedan as Hemi V-8 equipped performance models in the Dodge stable.

Dodge revealed Challenger as a concept at the Detroit Auto Show in 2006, so the car will move from concept to production in about two years.

Challenger will be produced at Chrysler's Brampton, Ontario, plant, which also assembles the Dodge Charger sedan and Magnum wagon and Chrysler 300 sedan. It will be the first coupe derivative off the rear-wheel-drive platform used at the plant.

Since Challenger rolled out as a concept, Chrysler says, it has gotten 1.5 million visits to Dodge.com and 20,000 requests for more information about the car.

Demon of a timeMonday 2/12/2007 11:11 AM CST

Mazda has one. Ditto Pontiac and Saturn.

But not Chrysler Group, at least not yet.

It is a roadster, and Trevor Creed, senior vice president in charge of design for Chrysler Group, said the automaker will use the Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland March 5 to ask "what if" with the .

It wouldn't be a high-volume car, but like the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky and Mazda Miata, it would be a showroom magnet. Miata, Solstice and Sky total just less than 50,000 sales annually.

Demon is being unveiled in Europe because that is where Chrysler Group is trying to expand the Dodge brand. It will make its North American debut at the New York Auto Show in April.

Creed said the two-seat, rear-wheel-drive Demon shares the same mini dimensions with Miata, its model. Demon is powered by a 2.4-liter, 4-cylinder engine with a 6-speed manual transmission.

"If we built Demon, we'd probably have a 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder in it for high mileage, and an optional turbocharged 300-horsepower, 2.4-liter 4 for high performance," Creed said.

If the name sounds familiar, it is because Dodge used it on a version of its compact Dart sedan in the '70s. The car sported a pitchfork-wielding demon on the fenders.

Though glad to bring back the name, Creed said political correctness meant, "no devil, no pitchfork. Both references were carefully avoided."

This isn't the first time Dodge has shown a roadster concept. It unveiled the Razor at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show. Razor was a hit but never got the go-ahead.

"Some will say it's time to stop teasing and do it [a roadster]. We showed a roadster with the Razor, but Pontiac built one with the Solstice. The [Demon] obviously raises speculation about production, but we didn't even create a convertible top for it because a top costs a lot to build and would have required space to store it, and that's a hint that it's not close to reality," Creed said.

"Two-seaters are a great market without a lot of players in it, but the key is affordability. I don't think Solstice or Sky prices [starting around $20,000] are as affordable as I'd want to be [less than $20,000, tops]. I'd want to be lower. But I don't want to get into any speculation. Is it a car we could do? Sure. Is it a car we will do? I don't know."

Photo ops: There's still six days to catch the Chicago Auto Show. But don't leave home without your camera for these:

Concept Chevy Camaro convertible: Looks twice as good as the concept coupe from last year. GM insiders say they are glad they showed the coupe first, because the convertible is so good looking the reaction to the coupe would have been: "Oh, that's nice."

GM insiders also say you'd be hard-pressed to tell the production model from the concept because they are so identical.

And make that a soft convertible top, because Chevy general manager Ed Pepper said, a the cost of a retractable hardtop would have shattered Chevy's value image.

Derived from a new global rear-wheel-drive platform shared with the Holden Commodore from GM of Australia. Camaro gets that platform, too. Choice of a high-mileage V-6 or high-performance V-8--just like Camaro.

Ion was a nice car and pliable polymer body panels that didn't dent or ding were a plus, but there wasn't much in the way of styling. Its replacement comes in two- and four-door hatchback body styles--and sheet metal body panels. Developed with GM's Opel subsidiary in Germany.

Cadillac CTS: OK, GM never built the concept Sixteen it showcased a couple years ago, but it has put that front end on the next CTS sedan. Imagine what this car would look like with two-doors and a retractable hardtop. Coming soon.

Or should we say Mercury Sable/ Ford Taurus/ Ford Taurus X? No more bellyaching that the trio is underpowered. The 3.5-liter, 260-h.p. V-6 coming this summer along with new front- and rear-end treatment, solves that problem. The name change solves the trio's anonymity.

Funny how this car was going to die because young kids weren't buying it, until Scion found out the young kids' parents were buying it. And viola! xB GEN II. Dubbed the circus clown car--now with curves.

If Ford chief CEO Alan Mulally gives thumbs up to only one concept on this year's show circuit, hope it's the MKR, a four-door coupe borrowing the front end from the 1941 Continental and powered by a new 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 that develops 415 h.p. No that's what we call a hot rod Lincolnthat can run on E85 for the environmentally concerned.

If Mulally can give two thumbs up, Interceptor should be his second choice. A four-door Mustang? In platform and performance thanks to its 5-liter, 400-h.p. V-8. Would give Ford a much-needed, brawny companion to Mustang.

The next generation Chrysler 300? Maybe. Have to wonder consumer reaction, however, to push button shifting in the instrument panel. Wouldn't be this automaker's first push-button shifter. Think 1956. Or even Ford's, for that matter. Remember the Edsel? Oops, Ford has been trying to forget Edsel for decades.

Someone must finally have given the designers one upside the head to wake them from their conservative slumber. Honda insists for decades that its styling has been emotionalif you like to snooze. The 2008 Accord line will take its cue from the concept.

The design direction for the next NSX that will come with V-10 engine and a new high-performance, rear-wheel-drive based version of all-wheel-drive.

Chevy Volt: The hybrid plug-in runs 40 miles on batteries only before a 6.5-hour recharge. You'll get an additional 600 miles with the 3-liter gas engine producing electricity. GM says the batteries aren't ready for prime time but has promised a working prototype later this year.

The show must go onFriday 2/2/2007 1:49 PM CST

Hard to believe, but it was 40 years ago this year that the Chicago Auto Show almost had to close before it opened.

The original McCormick Place along the lake was leveled by an early morning fire during the National Housewares Show. The auto show was due to open a few weeks later.

A faulty extension cord at one of the housewares booths was thought to be the cause, but that was never determined.

In scrambling to find a site, the auto show folks turned to the International Amphitheatre, which had housed the show until it moved to McCormick Place opened in 1961.

The show was salvaged at the last minute but not without a couple problems. For starters, the Amphitheatre hadn't been cleaned up from its previous exhibition: a livestock show. For another, the newfound concern over fire meant visitors probably saw as many firefighters as they did cars.

Hat trick: Over the years Chrysler has come up with a variety of stunts for folks to win new vehicles, such as Chicago Auto Show promotions in which the person who could keep a hand on a minivan the longest won it; ditto for the person who could kiss a truck the longest.

The newest gimmick takes some talent, however. To promote its Sebring convertible as well as the 133d running of the Kentucky Derby, Chrysler is inviting folks to design a hat that pays tribute to the race and the car.

The winner gets a trip to the Derby plus a Sebring convertible, and keeps the hat.

Bear down: Current Chicago Bears as well as members of the '85 Super Bowl championship team are slated to appear at the Chicago Auto Show beginning Feb. 9 in McCormick Place South and North.

The Chicago Automobile Trade Association is awaiting final word on which Bears will be at what displays and when. Visit www.chicagoautoshow.com and click on the event calendar for updates on the Bears as well as other celebrities who will be at the show.

It's show time in ChicagoFriday 1/19/2007 10:39 AM CST

Here's the dope on the Chicago Auto Show, which happens to be the 99th edition and you know what that means for next year.

The "First Look For Charity" Black Tie event is from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Feb. 8. Tickets cost $200 each and are available at www.drivechicago.com.

The show runs from Feb. 9 through 18. Hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, except for the last day when the doors close at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for seniors 62 and older and children 7-12. Children 6 and younger are free when they accompanied by a paying parent. Advance purchase is available through www.drivechicago.com.

The annual food drive takes place Feb. 14 through 16. Three cans of food to donate to the Chicago Christian Industrial League also will get you the half-price ticket.

No matter what day you go bring a camera and wear comfy shoes.

Turn to the Tribune for a couple special auto show sections Feb. 9 and Feb. 11 with details on what's going on at the show. Can't wait? Visit www.chicagoautoshow.com/infocenter/events/.

What, no Toyopet?: One of the attractions this year will be the Chevy Camaro concept convertible. You may remember the coupe from last year.

Couldn't help but have a little fun with Ed Welburn, vice president of design for GM, when the Camaro convertible was displayed at the Detroit Auto Show.

Considering that GM has taken a lot of heat lately with Toyota poised to pass it in worldwide sales, we took the opportunity to ask Welburn where we could find the Toyota namebadge on the drop top.

Welburn exhibited a lot of patience in not grabbing a chair and lifting it in the air over this scribe's head. He laughed, probably because he knows heritage cars are one way GM is going to get buyers back. You see, chances are slim that Toyota will bring back a modernized version of the Toyopet, its first ever car sold here.

Some deal: Speaking of Toyopet, Jim Press, who is in charge of Toyota's U.S. operations, confirmed a story we heard decades ago.

When Toyota first brought the Toyopet into the U.S., it got a man named Chief Samuelson to agree to do PR for the company. But rather than a weekly, monthly or annual fee, Samuelson agree to a "commission" from Toyota of $5 for every car it sold in the U.S.for life.

Heck of a gamble.

"He had some lean years," Press laughed. "But then he had years in which he made more money than he could count. He liked to smoke a pipe and would purchase pipes in different colors and then have shoes made up that matched the same color as the pipe."

Model A No. 3 on blockThursday 1/11/2007 2:02 PM CST

If you missed your chance 104 years ago, it's not too late.

The oldest surviving car built by Ford Motor Co.the third Model A sold by Henry Ford in 1903is on the block at RM Auctions Inc.

The car, which sold for $850 new, is expected to bring $400,000 to $500,000 at the auction Jan. 19 at the Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix.

By today's standards, the car would be called a micro mini, with only a 72-inch wheelbase (a Honda Fit, in comparison, has a 96-inch wheelbase) and powered by a 100-cubic-inch, 8-horsepower 2-cylinder engine with a 2-speed transmission.

Since 1903, the car that carries serial number 30 has had only four owners.

It was purchased initially by Herbert L. McNary, a buttermaker from Britt, Iowa, who made a $170 down payment on it.

After three years of negotiating with the McNary family, Harry E. Burd, a historic-car collector from Waterloo, Iowa, acquired it in 1950 for $400 and had the car restored.

In 1961, Burd sold the car for $6,500 to a Ford dealer in Switzerland who lent it to Ford of Germany for display in the company's foyer.

The current owner, who remains anonymous, purchased the car for an unspecified sum from the Swiss dealer in 2001.

For details, visit www.rmauctions.com.

VW shakeup: As expected, Wolfgang Bernhard is out at Volkswagen.

Bernhard, who has overseen the VW brand since May 2005, will leave Jan. 31. He had been chief operating officer of Chrysler Group and left after failing to be named head of Mercedes-Benz.

Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen AG's chief executive since the beginning of the year, consolidated his power in announcing he also will take control of the Volkswagen brand.

The departure frees Bernhard to fulfill a long-rumored return to DaimlerChrysler. Hecould head Chrysler Group if the turnaround to be proposed next month by President and CEO Tom LaSorda fails.

Winterkorn, who formerly headed VW's Audi AG unit, was promoted to the top job after Bernd Pischetsrieder stepped down at the end of last year. Pischetsrieder brought Bernhard to Volkswagen in February 2005, and Bernhard took the reins three months later.

``It was clear that as soon as Pischetsrieder had left that Dr. Bernhard's position was less secure, since it was Pischetsrieder who had hired him,'' said Stephen B. Cheetham, a European auto analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. in London.

Simon SaysWednesday 1/9/2007 11:59 AM CST

Want to get into the Guinness Book of World Records and win a car?

Chrysler can help you do both when it stages the world's largest game of Simon Says Feb. 9 at the Chicago Auto Show in McCormick Place.

The game will start with 1,200 players, and the last one standing gets a free 24-month lease on a 2007 Sebring.

Participants must live in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan or Wisconsin, be at least 18 and hold a valid driver's license. Registration deadline is noon Jan. 26 at www.sebringsays.com.

The world record Simon Says is held by 1,169 people in Scotland.In Chrysler's previous auto show games, consumers have won vehicles for being the last one sitting in, holding or kissing a truck or minivan.

Coolest cars and conceptsWednesday 1/9/2007 8:50 AM CST

Look for at the Chicago Auto Show next month.

We have seen the Chinese, and they are us Tuesday 1/9/2007 2:22 PM CST

Doesn't take much to get Bob Lutz, vice chairman of General Motors, started. He was asked about the impending arrival of Chinese cars in the U.S.

"Years ago we were asked if we feared the arrival of the Japanese. Then it was whether we feared the South Koreans, and now it's if we fear the Chinese. GM is the biggest auto producer in China. When you talk about the Chinese auto industry, you are talking about US!"

Advantage Japan: Lutz had plenty to say about the Japanese, too:

"If you take out legacy costs from the comparison, we are within $50 to $100 of each other in the cost to build a car. In addition to legacy costs  health care and pensions  they benefit from an undervalued yen and from the fact their transaction prices are up to $4,000 a vehicle higher without incentives and without discounts for rental business.

"We're getting out of the junk business, like employee pricing sales that boost market share but destroy residual values," he added. "It's better to sell fewer cars at higher margins than more cars at lower margins. Selling 5 million vehicles at zero profit isn't as good a proposition as selling 4 million vehicles at a profit."

No fooling.

Tuesday 1/9/2007 10:04 AM CST

Wagons? No: GM Chairman Rick Wagoner says the will be a sedan only, no wagon. That despite the fact that it's is built off the larger platform for the Malibu Maxx, a hatchback. Maxx goes away when the '08 Malibu arrives this fall.

Pumped up: What's conspicuous by its absence in Detroit? The lack of attention to high-mileage cars. But there are lots of intros of performance buggies. Take the pair from Lexus: The IS-F packing a 5-liter V-8 that generates 400 horsepower and LF-A with a V-10 that carries more than 500 horses. Lexus boasts that the LF-A "likely" will top 200 m.p.h. But then gas is no longer $3 a gallon.

Tuesday 1/9/2007 9:14 PM CST

Sweet 16?: Bob Lutz says the 2008 Cadillac CTS will get a high-performance V-Series offering "at some point." But he's coy about an even higher-performance, higher-priced Super 16 based on the full-size, 16-cylinder Cadillac Sixteen concept of a few years ago. "Have to wait," he said.He also tap dances gently around talk of the long-awaited CTS coupe."Some magazines have come up with a rendering by simply taking the sedan and making a coupe out of it. That's the last thing we'd do. If we do a coupe (OK, when, but Lutz still isn't at liberty to confirm), it will be radical."

Whatever: With Toyota bearing down on GM to become the world's largest vehicle producer this year, there has been much teeth-gnashing and chest-pounding. Not from Lutz: "If it happens, it happens."

This Caddy's not your father's BMWMonday 1/8/2007 12:49 PM CST

In introducing the second-generation Cadillac CTS Monday in Detroit, General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says it has been redesigned to cater to a "younger, hipper" crowd. Boomers age 55 to 60, he continues, "are oriented to German luxury brands."

Not the Paris Auto ShowMonday 1/8/2007 9:13 AM CST

If the flight took 50 minutes and retrieving the luggage took 65, this must be Detroit, and time for the annual North American International Auto Show.

GM staged a here on Saturday, the eve of the show. Based on her name, why did Carmen Electra appear on stage with a Chevy and not a Buick?

GM spent megabucks on the event, including a 400-foot-long heated tent to house it in. GM insiders said the show was meant to send a message to analysts and media that, contrary to the some opinion, it isn't a charity case.

Fast times: Critics who take Ford to task for being slow on the draw with new product have to catch the when it makes its way to the Chicago Auto Show next month. Heck of a novel looking four-door sedan derived from the Mustang coupe platform.

Camry critics: The Toyota Camry may be the best-selling car in the U.S., but North American went to the Saturn Aura and Truck of the Year went to the Chevy Silverado. Exhibit 2 that GM is no charity case.

The vote is taken by 48 members of the nation's automotive press, this scribe included. An even bigger surprise, based on Camry's sales reputation, is that its redesign for 2007 finished third behind the Honda Fit.

"Our reward was the 488,000 who bought a Camry," according to Don Esmond, senior vice president for Toyota in the U.S. Enough said.

No secret handshake, though: To get in the show you have to show an ID, don a wristband, lay your possessions on the floor for a bomb-sniffing dog, then flash your wristband at the guard each time you enter the exhibit area.

Is Block 37 available? Sorry, but Mercedes has an ice rink set up in Cobo Hall to demonstrate how its cars perform on the slippery stuff, but won't be bringing it to Chicago. It had weeks to build the rink here because there are no other shows in Cobo to worry about. But they'd have only hours to build it in the more hectic McCormick Place.